Surprise, surprise: "Windows Safer Than Mac" says chief hacker

"Safari will be the first to go. [Safari will] be on Snow Leopard, which isn't on the same level as Windows 7," says contest organizer Aaron Portnoy, security research team lead with 3Com TippingPoint, the sponsor of Pwn2Own.

It took only five seconds for a security researcher to hijack a Mac by hacking in through Safari last year. A year earlier, it took less than two minutes to hack in to a Macbook Air, whereas Safari proved to be the security hole again.

Macintosh users have long boasted that the Mac is more secure than Windows due to the large number of viruses, Trojans and other malware that can infect Windows PCs. But Windows users say the reason why more malware targets Windows, is that it has more users and - consequently - there is more money in it.

Security researcher Charlie Miller, who at the contest hacked into the Mac via Safari the last two years, however does not agree that Windows 7 is more secure than Snow Leopard. He says Snow Leopard is just as secure as Windows 7, although he notes that Safari is slightly more vulnerable than Windows-based browsers.

"The only difference is that Safari has a bigger attack surface, and includes, for example a PDF reader (Preview) and Flash," Miller told Computerworld's Gregg Keizer.